The Halmstad group : pioneers of Swedish surrealism

The research anthology The Halmstad Group- Pioneers of Swedish Surrealism is the first in Sweden to highlight the Halmstad Group from an art science perspective. The anthology brings together text by researchers Andrea Kollnitz, Helene Fuchs, Johan Zimsen and Kristoffer Noheden. All of them present new facts that both build upon- and partially refute- previous stoeries about the Halmstad Gruop and its art. The Halmstad Group is founded in connection with the art and industrial exhibition Halmstad 1929. With great curiosity for modernism, the young artists who under the name the Halmstad Gruop, bring surrealism to Sweden: Sven Jonson, Waldermar Lorentzon, Stellan Mörner, Axel Olson, Erik Olson, and Esaias Thorén. 

 Surrealism is born in Paris 1924 in tandem with the publication of the first surrealist manifesto, Manifeste du Surréalisme. Stellan Mörner brings it to Sweden where the Halmstad Group is inspired, and in the 1930sincreasingly explore what it means to express one´s senses and inner dream world in painting. The group now develops a distinct from of surrealism swtemming from costy, sea, and agricultural landscapes. The special west coast light they depict becomes their signature internationally.

 Then and there the stories about the Halmstad Group begin. It is with pride and joy that Mjellby Art Museum, a hundred years after the birth of surrealism, welcomes curious readers to take part in today´s research based interpretations of the life and work of the Halmstad Groups.